The USSR went down in history as the superpower that was the first to launch a satellite, a living creature and a person into space. Nevertheless, during the turbulent space race, the USSR sought - and succeeded - to overshadow the United States in space wherever possible. While the Soviet Union was the first to achieve many key advances, it also experienced the first human space tragedy.
Luna 1 was at least the fifth attempt by the USSR to crash a craft onto the Moon, and the previous unsuccessful attempts were so classified that even American intelligence did not know about many of them.
Compared to modern space probes, Luna 1 was extremely primitive: without its own propulsion system, with batteries providing limited electrical current, and without a camera. Transmissions from the probe stopped three days after launch.
The launch and setup of communication with the probe was successful; three communication sessions with the probe indicated normal operation. But the fourth showed a malfunction in one of the probe's systems, and communication was delayed for five days. Contact was finally lost when the probe was 2 million kilometers from Earth. The spacecraft drifted through space, passing Venus at a distance of 100,000 kilometers, and was unable to obtain course correction data.
The camera was primitive and complex. The spacecraft was able to take 40 photographs, which had to be produced, corrected and dried on the spacecraft. The onboard cathode ray tube would then scan the images and send the data to the Moon. The radio transmitter was so weak that the first attempts to transmit pictures failed. Only when the probe came closer to the Earth, drawing a circle around the Moon, were 17 low-quality photographs taken, in which at least something could be made out.
In any case, scientists were delighted with what they found in the photographs. Unlike the closest side of the Moon, which was flat, the far side had mountains and even a few dark regions.
Venera 7 entered the atmosphere as planned. However, the parachute, designed to slow the device, ruptured and did not work, which led to the module falling to the ground for 29 minutes. The module was thought to have failed before hitting the ground, but later analysis of recorded radio signals showed that the probe was returning temperature readings from the surface within 23 minutes of landing. The engineers who built the spacecraft should be proud of it.
Nevertheless, the Americans slightly outpaced the Soviet Union and were the first to reach the orbit of Mars. Mariner 9, which also launched in May 1971, arrived two weeks before the Soviet probes and became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. Upon arrival, the Soviet and American probes discovered that Mars was covered in a dust storm, which interfered with data collection.
While the Mars 2 lander crashed, Mars 3 successfully landed and began transmitting data. But the data transfer stopped after 20 seconds, and the only photo received was impossible to make out the details and was in poor light. This was largely due to a massive dust storm on Mars, otherwise the USSR would have taken the first clear photographs of the Martian surface.
Landing in the Sea of Plenty, the Soviet probe deployed a drill to collect lunar soil and place it in the liftoff stage, which then launched and returned the soil to Earth. Having opened the sealed container, Soviet scientists found only 101 grams of lunar soil - far from the 22 kilograms brought with Apollo 11. In any case, the samples were analyzed intensively and were shown to have the cohesive qualities of wet sand.
Launched on October 12, 1964, Voskhod 1 became the first spacecraft to carry more than one person into space. Although Voskhod was hailed as a new spacecraft by the Soviet Union, it was for the most part a slightly modified version of the same craft that carried Yuri Gagarin into space. Nevertheless, the Americans thought it was cool, since they didn’t even put two people into space at the same time at that time.
Soviet designers considered Voskhod unsafe. And they continued to insist against its use until the government bribed them with an offer to send one of the designers as an astronaut on a mission. This, of course, did not solve the security issues of the device.
Firstly, the astronauts could not carry out an emergency ejection in the event of a rocket failure, since it was not possible to build a hatch for each astronaut. Secondly, the astronauts fit so tightly in the capsule that they could not put on spacesuits. If the cabin had depressurized, it would have meant certain death for everyone. The new landing system, consisting of two parachutes and a retro rocket, had only been tested once before the actual mission. Finally, the astronauts had to diet before the mission to keep the total weight of the astronauts and capsule low enough to be carried by a single rocket.
Despite all these significant difficulties, the mission went astonishingly flawlessly.
On February 11, 1985, the Soviet space station Salyut 7 went silent. A cascade of electrical faults swept through the station, knocking out its electrical systems and leaving Salyut 7 dead and frozen.
In an attempt to save the station, the Soviet Union sent two veteran astronautics to repair Salyut 7. The automated docking system was not working, so the astronauts had to get close enough to perform a manual docking. Fortunately, the station did not rotate, and the astronauts were able to dock, demonstrating for the first time the ability to dock with any object in space, even dead and uncontacted ones.
The crew reported that the inside of the station was musty, icicles had grown on the walls, and the internal temperature was -10 degrees Celsius. Work to restore the space station took several days, and the crew had to test hundreds of cables to determine the source of the electrical fault.
One of the most outstanding achievements of Soviet science is undoubtedly space exploration in the USSR. Similar developments were carried out in many countries, but only the USSR and the USA were able to achieve real success at that time, ahead of other states by many decades. Moreover, the first steps in space really belonged to the Soviet people. It was in the Soviet Union that the first successful launch was carried out, as well as the launch of a launch vehicle with the PS-1 satellite into orbit. Before this triumphant moment, six generations of rockets had been created, with the help of which it was not possible to successfully launch into space. And only the R-7 generation made it possible for the first time to develop the first cosmic speed of 8 km/s, which made it possible to overcome the force of gravity and place the object into low-Earth orbit. The first space rockets were converted from long-range combat ballistic missiles. They were improved and the engines were boosted.
The first successful launch of an artificial earth satellite occurred on October 4, 1957. However, only ten years later this date was recognized as the official day of the proclamation of the space age. The first satellite was called PS-1, it was launched from the fifth research site, under the jurisdiction of the Union Ministry of Defense. By itself, this satellite weighed only 80 kilograms, and its diameter did not exceed 60 centimeters. This object stayed in orbit for 92 days, during which time it covered a distance of 60 million kilometers.
The device was equipped with four antennas through which the satellite communicated with the ground. This device included an electrical power supply, batteries, a radio transmitter, various sensors, an on-board electrical automation system, and a thermal control device. The satellite did not reach the earth; it burned up in the earth's atmosphere.
Further space exploration by the Soviet Union was, of course, successful. It was the USSR that first managed to send a person on a space journey. Moreover, the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, managed to return alive from space, thanks to which he became a national hero. However, subsequently, space exploration in the USSR, in short, was restrained. The technical lag and the era of stagnation had an effect. However, Russia continues to enjoy the successes achieved in those days to this day.
August 12, 1962 - the world's first group space flight was carried out on the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 spacecraft.
June 16, 1963 - the world's first flight into space by female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was made on the Vostok-6 spacecraft.
October 12, 1964 - the world's first multi-seat spacecraft, Voskhod-1, flew.
March 18, 1965 - the first human spacewalk in history took place. Alexey Leonov made a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft.
October 30, 1967 - the first docking of two unmanned spacecraft “Cosmos-186” and “Cosmos-188” was carried out.
September 15, 1968 - the first return of the Zond-5 spacecraft to Earth after orbiting the Moon. There were living creatures on board: turtles, fruit flies, worms, bacteria.
January 16, 1969 - the first docking of two manned spacecraft Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 was carried out.
November 15, 1988 - the first and only space flight of the Buran spacecraft in automatic mode.
January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 60 thousand km from the surface of the Moon and entered a heliocentric orbit. She is the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun.
September 14, 1959 - the Luna-2 station was the first in the world to reach the surface of the Moon in the region of the Sea of Clarity.
October 4, 1959 - the automatic interplanetary station “Luna-3” was launched, which for the first time in the world photographed the side of the Moon invisible from the Earth. During the flight, a gravity assist maneuver was carried out for the first time in the world.
February 3, 1966 - AMS Luna-9 made the world's first soft landing on the surface of the Moon, panoramic images of the Moon were transmitted.
On March 1, 1966, the Venera 3 station reached the surface of Venus for the first time. This is the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. April 3, 1966 - the Luna-10 station became the first artificial satellite of the Moon.
On September 24, 1970, the Luna-16 station collected and subsequently delivered samples of lunar soil to Earth. This is the first unmanned spacecraft to bring rock samples from another cosmic body to Earth.
November 17, 1970 - soft landing and start of operation of the world's first semi-automatic self-propelled vehicle Lunokhod-1.
December 15, 1970 - the world's first soft landing on the surface of Venus: Venera 7.
October 20, 1975 - the Venera-9 station became the first artificial satellite of Venus.
October 1975 - soft landing of two spacecraft "Venera-9" and "Venera-10" and the world's first photographs of the surface of Venus.
The Soviet Union did a lot for the study and exploration of space. The USSR was many years ahead of other countries, including the superpower USA.
Sources: antiquehistory.ru, prepbase.ru, badlike.ru, ussr.0-ua.com, www.vorcuta.ru, ru.wikipedia.org
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It is well known that the Soviet Union was the first to launch a satellite, a living creature and a person into space. During the space race, the USSR, whenever possible, sought to overtake and overtake America. There were victories, there were defeats, but the younger generation, who grew up after the collapse of the USSR, knows little about them, because space successes, according to the Internet, are the lot of “strong, superhero-like American astronauts.” But don’t forget what the Soviet cosmonautics accomplished...
10. First flyby around the Moon
Launched on January 2, 1959, Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to successfully reach the Moon. The 360-kilogram spacecraft, bearing the Soviet coat of arms, was supposed to reach the surface of the Moon and demonstrate the superiority of Soviet science. However, the satellite missed, passing 6,000 kilometers from the lunar surface. The probe released a cloud of sodium vapor, which glowed so brightly for some time that it made it possible to track the satellite's movement.
Luna 1 was at least the Soviet Union's fifth attempt to land on the Moon, with classified information about previous failed attempts kept in Top Secret files.
Compared to modern space probes, Luna 1 was extremely primitive. It did not have its own engine, and its electrical supply was limited to the use of primitive batteries. The probe also did not have cameras. Signals from the probe stopped arriving three days after launch.
9. First flyby of another planet
Launched on February 12, 1961, the Soviet space probe Venera 1 was intended to make a hard landing on Venus. This was the second attempt by the USSR to launch a probe to Venus. The descent capsule "Venera-1" was also supposed to deliver the Soviet coat of arms to the planet. Although most of the probe was expected to burn up upon re-entry, the Soviet Union hoped that the descent capsule would reach the surface, which would automatically make the USSR the first country to reach the surface of another planet.
The launch and the first communication sessions with the probe were successful; the first three sessions indicated normal operation of the probe, but the fourth took place five days late and showed a malfunction in one of the systems. Contact was eventually lost when the probe was about 2 million kilometers from Earth. The spacecraft was drifting in space 100,000 kilometers from Venus and was unable to obtain data to correct its course.
8. The first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the Moon
Launched on October 4, 1959, Luna 3 was the third spacecraft successfully launched to the Moon. Unlike the two previous probes, Luna 3 was equipped with a camera for photography. The task that was set for scientists was to use the probe to take a photograph of the far side of the Moon, which at that time had never been photographed.
The camera was primitive and complex. The spacecraft could only take 40 photographs, which had to be taken, developed and dried on the spacecraft. The onboard cathode ray tube would then scan the developed images and transmit the data to Earth. The radio transmitter was so weak that the first attempts to transmit images failed. When the probe, having completed a revolution around the Moon, approached the Earth, 17 photographs were obtained that were not of very high quality.
However, scientists were excited by what they found in the image. Unlike the visible side of the Moon, which was flat, the far side had mountains and unknown dark areas.
7. First successful landing on another planet
On August 17, 1970, the Venera 7 spacecraft, one of two Soviet twin spacecraft, was launched. After landing softly on the surface of Venus, the probe had to deploy a transmitter to transmit data to Earth, setting a record as the first successful landing on another planet and to survive in Venus' atmosphere, the lander was cooled to -8 degrees Celsius. Soviet scientists also wanted the lander to remain quiet for as long as possible. Therefore, it was decided that the capsule would be docked with the carrier during entry into the Venusian atmosphere until atmospheric resistance forced them to separate.
Venera 7 entered the atmosphere as planned, but 29 minutes before touching the surface, the drogue parachute could not hold up and ruptured. The lander was initially thought to have failed under the impact, but later analysis of recorded signals showed that the probe was transmitting temperature readings from the planet's surface within 23 minutes of landing, just as the engineers who designed the spacecraft had hoped.
6. The first artificial object on the surface of Mars
Mars 2 and Mars 3, twin spacecraft, were launched within one day of each other in May 1971. While orbiting Mars, they were supposed to map its surface. In addition, it was planned to launch descent vehicles from these spacecraft. Soviet scientists hoped that these landing capsules would be the first man-made objects on the surface of Mars.
However, the Americans were ahead of the USSR by being the first to reach the orbit of Mars. Mariner 9, which also launched in May 1971, reached Mars two weeks earlier and became the first spacecraft to orbit Mars. Arriving at the site, both American and Soviet probes discovered that Mars was covered with a planet-wide dust curtain, which interfered with data collection.
Although the Mars 2 lander crashed, the Mars 3 lander successfully landed and began transmitting data. But after 20 seconds the transmission stopped; only photos with subtle details and low light were transmitted. The failure probably occurred due to a large sandstorm on Mars, which prevented the Soviet spacecraft from taking the first clear photographs of the Martian surface.
5. First automated return system to deliver samples
NASA had rocks from the lunar surface brought back by Apollo astronauts. The Soviet Union, having failed to be the first to land men on the Moon, was determined to beat the Americans with an automated space probe to collect lunar soil and return it to Earth. The first Soviet probe, Luna 15, crashed during landing. The next five attempts failed near Earth due to problems with the launch vehicle. However, the sixth Soviet probe, Luna 16, was successfully launched.
Having landed near the Sea of Plenty, the Soviet station took samples of lunar soil and placed them in the return vehicle, which took off and returned to Earth with the samples. When the sealed container was opened, Soviet scientists received only 101 grams of lunar soil, compared to 22 kilograms delivered by Apollo 11. The Soviet samples were carefully examined, and it was determined that the soil structure was similar in quality to wet sand, but this was the first successful return of an automatic lander.
4. The first spacecraft for three people
Launched on October 12, 1964, Voskhod 1 was the first spacecraft capable of carrying more than one person into space. Although Voskhod was billed as a new spacecraft by the Soviet Union, it was in fact an upgraded version of the same vehicle that carried Yuri Gagarin into space. Nevertheless, for the Americans, who at that time did not have devices even for crews of two, it sounded impressive.
Soviet designers considered Voskhod unsafe. They continued to object to its use until the government bribed them with an offer to send one of the designers into orbit as an astronaut. However, in terms of safety, the design of the spacecraft had a number of serious criticisms.
Firstly, it was impossible to emergency eject the astronauts in case of an unsuccessful launch, since it was not possible to construct a hatch for each astronaut.
Secondly, the astronauts were so cramped in the capsule that they could not wear spacesuits. As a result, in the event of depressurization, they would die.
Thirdly, the new landing system, consisting of two parachutes and a braking engine, was tested only once before the flight.
Finally, the astronauts had to diet before the flight to ensure that the total weight of the astronauts and capsule was low enough to launch the rocket.
Taking into account all these serious difficulties, it was simply surprising that the flight went flawlessly.
3. First person of African descent in space
On September 18, 1980, Soyuz-38 flew to the orbital space station Salyut-6. On board were the Soviet cosmonaut and the Cuban pilot Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, who became the first person of African descent to go into space. His flight was part of the Soviet Intercosmos program, which allowed other countries to participate in Soviet space flights.
Mendes only remained aboard Salyut 6 for a week, but he conducted more than 24 experiments in chemistry and biology. Its metabolism, the structure of the electrical activity of the brain, and the change in the shape of the leg bones under conditions of weightlessness were studied. Upon returning to Earth, Mendes was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" - the highest award of the USSR.
Since Mendez was not American, America did not consider this an achievement, so for the United States, the first African-American in space in 1983 was Guyon Stewart Bluford, a member of the crew of the space shuttle Challenger.
2. First docking with a dead space object
On February 11, 1985, the Soviet space station Salyut 7 fell silent. A cascade of short circuits occurred at the station, shutting down all its electrical systems and plunging Salyut 7 into a dead, frozen state.
In an attempt to save Salyut 7, the USSR sent two veteran cosmonauts to repair the station. The automated docking system did not work, so the astronauts had to get close enough to try a manual docking. Fortunately, the station was stationary and the astronauts were able to dock, demonstrating for the first time that it was possible to dock with any object in space, even if it was dead and uncontrollable.
The crew reported that the inside of the station was covered with mold, the walls were covered with icicles, and the temperature was -10 degrees Celsius. Work to restore the space station took several days, and the crew had to test hundreds of cables to determine the source of the electrical fault, but they succeeded.
1. The first human victims in space
On June 30, 1971, the Soviet Union eagerly awaited the return of the world's first three cosmonauts after spending more than 23 days in orbit. But when the capsule landed, there was no signal from the crew inside. Opening the hatch, ground workers found three dead astronauts with dark blue spots on their faces and streaks of blood from their noses and ears. What happened?
According to the investigation, the tragedy occurred immediately after the separation of the descent module from the orbital module. The valve in the descent module remained open and in less than two minutes all the air was released from the capsule. As the pressure dropped, the astronauts quickly suffocated, unable to find and close the valve before they lost consciousness and died.
There were other deaths, but they occurred during launch and passage through the atmosphere. The Soyuz 11 accident occurred at an altitude of 168 kilometers while the cosmonauts were still in space, making them the first, and so far the only, to die in space.
So remember. She knows both victories and failures, and do not let anyone doubt that you live in a great country.
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On Thursday, the Russian Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle was supposed to launch with two spacecraft for the European Galileo navigation satellite system. However, due to malfunctions, it was postponed, and today Soyuz-ST-B launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana.
In this regard, we decided to recall the main space successes of the USSR and present you with our rating.
Having won a decisive victory in World War II, the Soviet Union did a lot to explore and explore space. Moreover, he became the first among all: in this matter, the USSR was ahead of even the superpower of the USA. The official beginning of practical space exploration was made on October 4, 1957, when the USSR successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite into low-Earth orbit, and three and a half years after its launch, on April 12, 1961, the USSR launched the first living person into space. Historically, it turned out that the Soviet Union held the lead in space exploration for exactly 13 years - from 1957 to 1969. KM.RU offers its selection of tens of the most important achievements during this period.
1st success (first intercontinental ballistic missile). In 1955 (long before the flight tests of the R-7 rocket), Korolev, Keldysh and Tikhonravov approached the USSR government with a proposal to launch an artificial Earth satellite into space using a rocket. The government supported this initiative, after which in 1957, under the leadership of Korolev, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 was created, which in the same year was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite. And although Korolev tried to launch his first liquid rockets into space back in the 30s, the first country to begin work on creating intercontinental ballistic missiles back in the 1940s was Nazi Germany. Ironically, the intercontinental missile was designed to strike the East Coast of the United States. But man has his own plans, and history has its own. These missiles failed to fall on the United States, but they managed to forever carry human progress into real outer space.
2nd success (the first artificial satellite of the Earth). On October 4, 1957, the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. The second country to acquire an artificial satellite was the United States - this happened on February 1, 1958 (Explorer 1). The following countries - Great Britain, Canada and Italy launched their first satellites in 1962-1964 (though on American launch vehicles). The third country to independently launch the first satellite was France - November 26, 1965 (Asterix). Later, Japan (1970), China (1970) and Israel (1988) launched the first satellites on their launch vehicles. The first artificial Earth satellites of many countries were developed and purchased in the USSR, USA and China.
3rd luck (first animal astronaut). On November 3, 1957, the second artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 2, was launched, which for the first time launched a living creature into space - the dog Laika. Sputnik 2 was a conical capsule 4 meters high, with a base diameter of 2 meters, containing several compartments for scientific equipment, a radio transmitter, a telemetry system, a software module, a regeneration system and cabin temperature control. The dog was placed in a separate sealed compartment. It so happened that the experiment with Laika turned out to be very short: due to the large area, the container quickly overheated, and the dog died already on the first orbits around the Earth.
4th success (the first artificial satellite of the Sun). January 4, 1959 - the Luna-1 station passed at a distance of 6 thousand kilometers from the surface of the Moon and entered a heliocentric orbit. It became the world's first artificial satellite of the Sun. The Vostok-L launch vehicle launched the Luna-1 spacecraft onto the flight path to the Moon. This was a rendezvous trajectory, without using an orbital launch. This launch essentially successfully completed an experiment to create an artificial comet, and also for the first time, using an on-board magnetometer, the Earth's outer radiation belt was recorded.
5th success (the first device on the Moon). September 14, 1959 - the Luna-2 station for the first time in the world reached the surface of the Moon in the region of the Sea of Serenity near the craters Aristides, Archimedes and Autolycus, delivering a pennant with the coat of arms of the USSR. This device did not have its own propulsion system. Scientific equipment included scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, and micrometeorite detectors. One of the main scientific achievements of the mission was the direct measurement of the solar wind.
6th luck (first man in space). On April 12, 1961, the first manned flight into space was made on the Vostok-1 spacecraft. In orbit, Yuri Gagarin was able to conduct the simplest experiments: he drank, ate, and made notes in pencil. “Putting” the pencil next to him, he discovered that it instantly began to float upward. Before his flight, it was not yet known how the human psyche would behave in space, so special protection was provided to prevent the first cosmonaut from trying to control the flight of the ship in a panic. To enable manual control, he needed to open a sealed envelope, inside of which was a piece of paper with a code that, by typing on the control panel, could unlock it. At the moment of landing after ejection and disconnecting the air duct of the descent vehicle, the valve in Gagarin’s sealed spacesuit did not immediately open, through which outside air should flow, so the first cosmonaut almost suffocated. The second danger for Gagarin could have been falling by parachute into the icy water of the Volga (it was the month of April). But Yuri was helped by excellent pre-flight preparation - by controlling the lines, he landed 2 km from the coast. This successful experiment immortalized the name of Gagarin forever.
7th luck (first man in outer space). On March 18, 1965, the first human spacewalk in history took place. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov performed a spacewalk from the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The Berkut spacesuit used for the first exit was of the ventilation type and consumed approximately 30 liters of oxygen per minute with a total supply of 1666 liters, calculated for 30 minutes of the astronaut’s stay in outer space. Due to the pressure difference, the suit swelled and greatly interfered with the astronaut’s movements, which made it very difficult for Leonov to return to Voskhod-2. The total time for the first exit was 23 minutes 41 seconds, and outside the ship it was 12 minutes 9 seconds. Based on the results of the first exit, a conclusion was made about the ability of a person to perform various work in outer space.
8th luck (first “bridge” between two planets). On March 1, 1966, the 960 kg Venera 3 station reached the surface of Venus for the first time, delivering the USSR pennant. This was the world's first flight of a spacecraft from Earth to another planet. Venera 3 flew in tandem with Venera 2. They were unable to transmit data about the planet itself, but they obtained scientific data about outer and near-planetary space in the year of the quiet Sun. The large volume of trajectory measurements was of great value for studying the problems of ultra-long-range communications and interplanetary flights. Magnetic fields, cosmic rays, flows of charged low-energy particles, solar plasma flows and their energy spectra, as well as cosmic radio emissions and micrometeors were studied. The Venera 3 station became the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
9th luck (first experiment with living plants and creatures). On September 15, 1968, the first return of the spacecraft (Zond-5) to Earth after flying around the Moon. There were living creatures on board: turtles, fruit flies, worms, plants, seeds, bacteria. “Probes 1-8” are a series of spacecraft launched in the USSR from 1964 to 1970. The manned flight program was curtailed due to the US loss of the so-called “moon race”. The “Zond” devices (as well as a number of others called “Cosmos”), according to the Soviet program of flyby of the Moon during the “lunar race”, tested the technology of flights to the Moon with a return to Earth after a ballistic flyby of the Earth’s natural satellite. The latest device in this series successfully flew around the Moon, photographed the Moon and Earth, and also tested the landing option from the northern hemisphere.
10th success (first on Mars). On November 27, 1971, the Mars 2 station reached the surface of Mars for the first time. The launch onto the flight path to Mars was carried out from the intermediate orbit of an artificial earth satellite by the last stage of the launch vehicle. The mass of the Mars-2 apparatus was 4650 kilograms. The orbital compartment of the apparatus contained scientific equipment intended for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite. The Mars-2 descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere too abruptly, which is why it did not have time to brake during the aerodynamic descent. The device, having passed through the planet's atmosphere, crashed on the surface of Mars in the Nanedi Valley in the Land of Xanth (4°N; 47°W), reaching the surface of Mars for the first time in history. The pennant of the Soviet Union was fixed on board Mars-2.
Since 1969-71, the United States has zealously picked up the baton of human space exploration and made a number of important, but still not so epoch-making steps for the history of astronautics.
Despite the fact that the USSR continued to actively explore space in the 1970s (the first artificial satellite of Venus in 1975, etc.), starting from 1981 and, alas, to this day, the leadership in astronautics has been held by the United States. And yet history does not seem to stand still - since the 2000s, China, India and Japan have actively entered the space race. And, perhaps, soon, due to powerful economic growth, primacy in astronautics will pass into the hands of post-communist China.
Various means for carrying out space flight have been proposed. Science fiction writers also mentioned rockets. However, these missiles were a technically unreasonable dream. For many centuries, scientists have not named the only means at a person’s disposal with which one can overcome the powerful force of gravity and be carried into interplanetary space. The great honor of opening the way to other worlds for people fell to the lot of our compatriot K. E. Tsiolkovsky.
A modest Kaluga teacher was able to see in the well-known gunpowder rocket a prototype of the mighty spaceships of the future. His ideas will serve as the basis for human exploration of outer space for a long time to come.
Many centuries have passed since gunpowder was invented and the first rocket was created, which was used mainly for entertainment fireworks on days of great celebrations. But only Tsiolkovsky showed that the only aircraft capable of penetrating the atmosphere and even leaving the Earth forever is a rocket.
In 1911, Tsiolkovsky uttered his prophetic words: “Humanity will not remain forever on Earth, but, in pursuit of light and space, it will first timidly penetrate beyond the atmosphere, and then conquer all the space around the earth.
Now we are witnessing how this great prophecy begins to come true. Human penetration into space began on October 4, 1957. On this memorable day, the first artificial Earth satellite in the history of mankind, launched in the USSR, entered orbit. He weighed 86.3 kg. Having broken through the earth's atmosphere, the first cosmic swallow carried scientific instruments and radio transmitters into near-Earth space. They transmitted to Earth the first scientific information about the outer space surrounding the Earth.
The first satellite began to orbit the Earth in an elliptical orbit. The extreme points of its ascent - the greatest (apogee) and the smallest (perigee) - were located at an altitude of 947 and 228 km, respectively. The inclination of the orbital plane to the equator was 65 0 . The satellite made its first revolution in 1 hour 36.2 minutes and made a little less than 15 revolutions per day. Borisenko I.G. "First records in space." M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1969. P.35
The relatively low location of the orbital perigee caused the satellite to decelerate in the rarefied layers of the earth's atmosphere and shortened its orbital period by 2.94 seconds per day. Such a slight reduction in the orbital time indicated that the satellite was descending very slowly, and from the beginning the apogee was decreasing, and the orbit itself was gradually approaching circularity.
After 20 days, the cosmic first-born fell silent - the batteries of its transmitters were exhausted. Heated by the Sun and frozen in the earth's shadow, it silently circled over the planet that sent it, reflecting the sun's rays and radar pulses. Gradually descending, it existed for about two and a half months and burned up in the lower, denser layers of the atmosphere.
The flight of the first satellite provided valuable information. Having carefully studied the gradual change in orbit due to braking in the atmosphere, scientists were able to calculate the density of the atmosphere at all altitudes where the satellite flew, and using these data to more accurately predict changes in the orbits of subsequent satellites.
Determining the exact trajectory of artificial satellites made it possible to conduct a number of geophysical studies, clarify the shape of the Earth, and more accurately study its oblateness, which makes it possible to draw up more accurate geographical maps.
Deviations of the actual trajectory of the satellite from the calculated one indicate the unevenness of the Earth's gravitational field, which is influenced by the distribution of masses inside the Earth and in the earth's crust. Thus, by studying the movement of the satellite, scientists clarified information about the earth’s gravitational field and the structure of the earth’s crust.
Such calculations have been made before based on the movement of the Moon, but a satellite flying at an altitude of only a few hundred kilometers above the Earth reacts more strongly to its gravitational field than the Moon, located at a distance of almost 400 thousand km from the Earth.
The study of the passage of radio waves through the ionosphere was of great importance, i.e. through the electrified upper layers of the earth's atmosphere. Radio waves sent from the satellite seemed to probe right through the ionosphere. Analysis of these results made it possible to significantly clarify the structure of the gas shell of the earth.
The second Soviet satellite was launched into a more elongated orbit on November 3, 1957. If the rocket of the first satellite allowed it to be raised to 947 km (apogee), then the rocket of the second satellite was more powerful. With almost the same minimum altitude (perigee), the apogee of the orbit reached 1671 km, and the satellite weighed significantly more than the first - 508.3 kg. Glushko V.P. Development of rocketry and astronautics in the USSR. M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1987. - P.54
The third satellite rose even higher - 1880 km and was even heavier. He weighed 1327 kg.
On January 2, 1959, the Soviet space rocket Luna-1 rushed towards the Moon and entered near-solar orbit. She became a satellite of the Sun. In the West they called it the moonlight. Its launch traced the entire thickness of near-Earth space. During the 34-hour flight, the rocket covered 370 thousand km, crossed the orbit of the Moon and entered near-solar space. After this, its flight was monitored for about 30 hours and the most valuable scientific information was received from the instruments installed on it. For the first time, instruments sent by man studied outer space over a distance of 500 thousand km from Earth.
The information obtained during this flight significantly supplemented our information about one of the most important discoveries of the first years of the space age - the discovery of near-Earth radiation belts. In addition to various measurements, during the 500 thousand km flight, observations of the gas composition of the interplanetary medium, observations of meteorites, cosmic rays, etc. were carried out.
No less amazing was the flight of the second Soviet space rocket, Luna-2, launched on September 12, 1959. The instrument container of this rocket touched the surface of the Moon on September 14 at 00 hours 02 minutes 24 seconds! For the first time in history, a man-made apparatus reached another celestial body and delivered to a lifeless planet a monument to the great feat of the Soviet people - a pennant with the image of the USSR Coat of Arms. Luna 2 established that the Moon does not have a magnetic field or radiation belts within the accuracy of instruments.
Before the news of this event had time to properly reach people’s consciousness, our country amazed the world with a new amazing achievement: on October 4, 1959, on the second anniversary of the launch of the first Soviet Earth satellite, the third space rocket was launched in the Soviet Union - “Luna” -3". She separated from herself an automatic interplanetary station with instruments. The container was directed in such a way that, having circled the Moon, it returned back to the Earth. The equipment installed in it photographed and transmitted to Earth an image of the far side of the Moon, which is not visible to us.
This brilliant scientific experiment is interesting not only for the unprecedented fact of taking the first photograph taken in space and transmitting it to Earth, but also for the implementation of an extremely interesting and complex orbit.
Luna 3 was supposed to be above the far side of the Moon, and the orientation system was supposed to turn the container so that its cameras were pointed at the Moon. To do this, on a command from the Earth, the entire container was set into rotation, and when the bright rays of the Sun hit the photocells located on the lower bottom of the container, the current they caused in these photocells served as a signal by which the container stopped rotating and, stopping as if spellbound, began to look at the Sun. (Due to the weak reflected light of the Earth and the Moon, photocells - solar orientation sensors - could not work.) Cameras and lunar sensors located on the opposite upper bottom of the container turned out to be looking towards the Moon. At the beginning of the work, they chose such a relative position of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun, in which the Earth was away from the line connecting the Moon and the Sun. Therefore, the Earth, a star much brighter than the Moon, could not fall into the lenses of the lunar orientation sensors, since it was in a different sector of the sky. Borisenko I.G. "First records in space." M.: Mechanical Engineering, 1969, -P.75
After the far side of the Moon, illuminated by the Sun, was in the field of view of the lunar sensors, the solar sensors turned off, the station more accurately “verified” using the lunar sensors, and photography began.
And so, when the container approached the Moon, it was required that it, the Moon and the Sun be on the same straight line. In addition, the gravity of the Moon should have distorted the orbit of Luna 3 so that it would return to Earth from the northern hemisphere, where all Soviet observation stations are located.
Launching from the northern hemisphere, Luna-3 seemed to dive under the Moon - passed from its southern side - then deflected upward, completely circling the Moon, and returned to the Earth, as was calculated, from the northern hemisphere.
Automatic devices on board the container in space developed the film and, using electronic technology, transmitted the photographs to Earth via radio.
Photographing the far side of the Moon represents the first active step in the practice of “extraterrestrial” astronomy. For the first time, the study of another celestial body was carried out not by observation from the Earth, but directly from outer space near this body.
Our astronomers received a unique photograph of the far side of the Moon, from which they were able to compile an atlas of lunar mountains and “seas”. The names assigned to open mountain formations and plains forever established the glory of the homeland of the discoverers who sent a wonderful automatic device - the prototype of future space observatories.
Having firmly mastered the technique of launching automatic devices, Soviet scientists began to create a spacecraft for human flights.
Dozens of unresolved questions faced science. It was necessary to create many times more powerful launch vehicles to launch spacecraft into orbit, several times heavier than the heaviest artificial satellites launched previously. It was necessary to design and build aircraft that not only fully ensure the safety of the astronaut at all stages of the flight, but also create the necessary conditions for his life and work. It was necessary to develop a whole complex of special training that would allow the body of future cosmonauts to adapt in advance to existence in conditions of overload and weightlessness. The account and many other issues had to be resolved.
Despite the complexity of this enormous problem, Soviet science and technology brilliantly coped with its solution.
So, the invention of the first artificial satellites, thanks to which scientists gained valuable scientific knowledge, is the first achievement of Soviet scientists in the exploration of outer space, which subsequently allowed scientists to move on to a more serious task, which later turned into the second scientific achievement - the launch of a living being into space .
After a series of test launches, when places in the satellite cabin were occupied by various creatures - from fungi and bacteria to the world-famous Belka and Strelka - the design of the spacecraft with all its complex systems for launching into orbit, stabilizing the flight and returning to Earth was completely worked out.
